1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to systems for conducting transactions over a network. In particular, the present invention pertains to a system that conducts transactions (e.g., paying bills, sales of goods and/or services, etc.) over a network and enables users to tender payment manually (e.g., tender payment in the form of cash, check, etc.) for those transactions.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, consumers engage in various transactions in order to obtain desired and/or necessary goods and/or services. These transactions typically require the consumer to travel to the physical site of the service and/or goods provider to conduct the transaction. For example, the consumer may travel to a retail establishment to purchase and tender payment for a desired item. Alternatively, services (e.g., utilities, banking services, credit cards, etc.) may be retained on a billing basis where consumers receive a billing statement periodically that indicates an account balance and requests payment for the retained services. The consumer may tender or remit payment for the above-described transactions in various forms. For example, payment may be mailed to a creditor or provider within a reasonable period after receiving a billing statement, or a credit card or cash may be presented to a provider at provider designated locations (e.g., provider office, retail establishment offering the item or service for sale, etc.). In addition, consumers may tender payment for particular transactions (e.g., paying bills) to agents residing at varying locations (e.g., retail establishments, malls, grocery stores, etc.) and affiliated with various creditors and/or providers. These agents generally process received consumer payments in order to provide a consolidated payment to each creditor and/or provider for corresponding consumer transactions. The agents generally tender payment to the creditors and/or providers in the form of a check, or provide a file of consumer payment information to the creditors and/or providers and tender payment in the form of electronic funds transfer. However, these manners of conducting and remitting payment for transactions tend to become cumbersome. Further, consumer payments received by the agents typically require various processing to determine the consolidated payment or sophisticated electronic formatting in batch mode to provide the consumer payment file in a desired file format (e.g., CIE, CIX, EDI). This tends to create delays for the transaction to be processed, while producing various payment rejections during transaction processing due to inconsistent account information.
The related art has attempted to overcome these problems by providing various systems that facilitate performance of consumer transactions remotely. For example, International Publication No. WO 01/16768 (Sosa et al) discloses an online purchase system that provides a universally accessible, anonymous and secure online payment option for consumers. A user pays cash and receives a serial number. The serial number may be imprinted on a cash card or the like for convenience. The user accesses an online proxy system using the serial number, thereby establishing a cash account and allowing the user to conduct online transactions using that account. The proxy system includes at least one universally accepted charge account that is used to conduct transactions on behalf of the user. The user surfs the Internet for goods and services of online merchants. The user selects items to purchase and indicates the desire to purchase the selected items by selecting or interfacing a buy button or the like. The proxy system intercepts the purchase request, compares the user's account balance with the total purchase amount to verify sufficient finds, adjusts the account balance if there are sufficient funds, and populates a purchase page from the merchant with valid charge account information to complete the purchase. The cash cards may be dispensed at a currency receiving vending machine, a dispensing unit or the like.
International Publication No. WO 01/11515 (Doherty et al.) discloses a system to make electronic payments on the Web. This system provides anonymity, security and accountability. A prepaid stored value card including a cash card identification number for a predetermined amount of money may be purchased at a point-of-sale. A user visits a web merchant, selects an item to purchase and enters the cash card identification number and a personal security code to transmit for confirmation to the server. The server subtracts the cost of the item from the predetermined amount on the cash card.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,381 (Nelson) discloses a payment system suitable for network transactions in merchandise between purchasers and vendors. The system employs the services of guarantors which issue vouchers for payment. The vendors offer the merchandise on the network as URLs which optionally may include a URL address separated from a URL request. The URL or the URL address initially includes the network address of the guarantor and specifies particular merchandise. In response to selecting the URL, the purchaser is initially taken to the guarantor where the voucher is placed into the URL or the URL request, while the network address of the vendor is placed into the URL or the URL address. The purchaser is then redirected to the vendor where the voucher is accepted as payment before the vendor releases the merchandise for communication over the network to the purchaser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,528 (Hogan) discloses a bill delivery and payment system where users are able to access a server computer on a communications network to obtain bill information and pay bills. The communications network may be the Internet or World Wide Web. A user may access a web site provided by the server computer via a personal computer to view the bill information and to instruct the server computer as to the details of the bill payment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,656 (Crooks et al) discloses a computerized billing and payment authorization system. A host system includes a database in which information associated with a billable entity from which payment is to be received is stored. Billing information is received from a billing entity and is associated with a bill for payment by the billable entity. The billable entity is provided with remote electronic access to the billing information in the host computer and can authorize payment thereof. In one implementation, the billing information is scrutinized in accordance with predetermined tolerance parameters prior to the billable entity gaining access thereto. In another implementation, a plurality of billing entities provide billing information to the host system, with the billing information being subsequently checked and consolidated into a consolidated amount which can be remotely accessed by the billable entity. In a preferred implementation, a plurality of utility providers are incorporated into the system and provide billing information for customers which may have a number of different, geographically-separated sites being serviced by different utilities. The billing information is consolidated and made available electronically through access which is initiated by the customer. The systems and methodologies are preferably implemented in connection with a multiuser computer network, such as the Internet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,881 (Colvin, Sr.) discloses a system for conducting commerce over a large public network, such as the Internet. The system facilitates communications between a merchant, a customer and a bank or credit card processor. In particular, the customer may select products to purchase by accessing a merchant's web site and clicking on one or more links that place the products in a virtual shopping cart. The customer then clicks a checkout link that causes an itemized price list to be downloaded to the customer's computer. Once downloaded, this information is merged with information locally stored on a customer's computer. The customer's computer then adds sales tax information and sends this information along with a shipping address back to the merchant. Credit card information from the customer is sent directly to the financial institution such that the merchant never receives the customer's credit card information. The financial institution informs the merchant that the transaction is complete.
The above-described systems of the related art suffer from several disadvantages. In particular, the related art systems tend to require the use of pre-existing monetary or credit card accounts to conduct transactions remotely (i.e., over the Internet), thereby limiting manners of facilitating consumer payment and restricting use of the systems to consumers that can establish the required accounts. Further, various web sites may utilize different and independent accounts to conduct transactions. Thus, the consumer is provided with the cumbersome tasks of managing several accounts and correlating each account with the appropriate web site in order to conduct transactions. Moreover, the related art systems generally require users to have access to personal computers or other devices in order to facilitate performance of the transactions, thereby limiting system availability to a reduced consumer base. The related art systems accepting payment via credit cards tend to expose a consumer to the risk of finance charges and/or accumulation of debt. These systems further transfer consumer financial information between remote systems communicating over the Internet in order to complete a transaction, thereby exposing that information to interception by illegitimate parties for unjust gain. In addition, consumer payment and other information utilized to conduct transactions is typically stored by the related art systems, thereby infringing upon consumer privacy.